"This contract is just right for us", said a satisfied Rüdiger Pallentin, Board Member of Lloyd Werft. For completion by May 15, 2013, in the yard’s Kaiserdock 1 is a ship requiring basic technical work mainly extensive repairs to the thruster, rudder and shaft plant. For Project Manager Carl Ratjen and his team it is not only a question of the workload itself but also of the demanding time schedule set for the job. And on top of that, all the classification work on the ice-class expedition ship also has to be completed in the allotted time for Det Norske Veritas.

"The ship has to be back in her operational schedule within a relatively short time. We understand things like that and it is one of our special talents that we can complete complex jobs inside the shortest possible time", he adds.

He also sees the first visit of the "National Geographic Explorer" as a dry run for further possible orders, particularly since the shipping company has a second ship of similar design.

Lloyd Werft explain that after the 2008 conversion of the former Hurtigruten ship "Midnatsol", Lindblad Expeditions Inc. put the small but versatile 6,471 GT ship, with just 81 cabins for 148 passengers and a crew of 84, under the Bahamas flag and into service mainly in the Polar Regions for a growing number of passengers who are breathing new life into those particular cruise shipping niche markets. The ship’s name "National Geographic Explorer" is, at one and the same time, her cruise itinerary.

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